Design Thinking – The Future is unknown?

(Texto em Português depois deste)

Jump into the unknown

As We Know,There are known knowns.There are things we know we know.Also we knowThere are known unknowns.That is to sayWe know there are some thingsWe do not know.But there are unknown unknowns Also,The ones we do not knowWe do not know.

Donald Rumsfeld

The widespread tendency of people to produce the future based on past data, it is a reality that has caused great disappointment. When we extrapolate from the past to predict the future and given the recent experiences, we cannot think of creating a different and better future.

The hard concept that “you cannot measure it does not matter, because it cannot be managed” disrupts and prevents imagination and the creation of new ideas.

The world is full of unknown things, of hidden needs that exist but that neither we nor the companies consumers or users know or articulate.

But innovation is only possible when we challenge and question the rule that the best way is to try to find the best possible answer to a problem. Finding opportunity becomes more important than solving problems, which leads to responses that did not exist before.

What are the most sensitive points in the day-to-day lives and how to get information about it?

The opportunity to respond to the whole rather than ad hoc answers is given to us by observation of routines that allows the tacit understanding of background conditions.

This observation should be viewed more like an expedition to the lifestyle of people and companies and held a second set of tracks including the emotional world, language or body language, if applicable.

How to articulate needs in enterprises where the requirements have not been thought of?

The notion of context must be present in the observations so as to identify needs and opportunities, not on the past, but based on what are already relatively in the future.

The future can be fun and smile increasingly more people!

Anab Jain in LIFT09 presented a paper entitled “Learning to play with the Future” where she spoke of the projects they worked and here I point to promote reflection.

“The future of work“, a project for Colebrook, Bosson & Saunders, a product design and office furniture company, explored the nomadic nature of work in contemporary life. The client wanted an open-ended project that created new ways of thinking about the future of work, and opened up new spaces for product innovation. They were particularly interested in the home worker, the nomadic worker and the office worker, and in the demographic of the elderly worker.

Anab decided that the best way to find out what this future would be was to put these people in the future, and she created personas which she projected fifteen years into the future. She invented new jobs for them and placed them in a fictional space, which she called Little Brinkland. By having a new job, they needed new work places, new products and new services, which Anab chronicled about. Many practical service ideas and scenarios came out of this Project”

Anab is not alone to think ahead because, about six months later, Jamais Cascio wrote:

“I’ve sometimes called futures thinking a “wind-tunnel,” a way of testing plans and ideas. Now I think that’s a bit limited. Futures thinking is perhaps better understood as an immune system for our civilization. By examining and testing different possible outcomes–potential threats, emerging ideas, exciting opportunities–we strengthen our collective capacity to deal with what really does transpire. Thinking about the future, and doing so in a careful, structured, open and collaborative way, makes us a stronger civilization. Focusing only the challenges of the present may seem imperative, especially when those challenges are massive and frightening. But without a sense of what’s next, a capacity for understanding connections and horizons, and a vision of what kind of world we want, our efforts to deal with today’s problems will inevitably leave us weakened, vulnerable, and blind to challenges to come.”

And about the future? What do you think?

Design Thinking – O Futuro é desconhecido

Saltar para o desconhecido

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.